


The Crayon Drawings

by Jean_C_Pepper



Category: Batman (Movies - Nolan)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-09-12
Updated: 2010-09-12
Packaged: 2017-10-11 17:22:46
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,810
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/114800
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jean_C_Pepper/pseuds/Jean_C_Pepper





	1. Maybe

Bruce had been in the habit of hiding the Joker's nocturnal visits. But, that night, it had taken them longer than usual to work off their rage and lust. It was almost dawn before they both fell into an exhausted sleep. When Alfred came in carrying the breakfast tray, neither man stirred.

 

The familiar way their bodies lay entwined around each other told Alfred that this was not the first time they slept this way. Bruce lay on his side- with his body curled protectively around the Joker. The Joker wasn't wearing makeup but his hair was faintly green. He lay with his head on Bruce's chest and Bruce had curled an arm around him. It was cold so thankfully they were covered with blankets.

 

Alfred set the tray down and left the room. Bruce's bedroom had reeked of sex, that slightly acidic pungent smell wracking Alfred's brain. What had gone so horribly wrong that Bruce was comfortably curled around the body of his enemy.

 

When Bruce emerged from his room hours later, he seemed surprised to find that Alfred was still there. Alfred greeted him and Bruce said he was going in to the office. Alfred acted like nothing had changed and they never spoke of it. Alfred rarely saw the Joker but his presence was there. Alfred would walk into Bruce's room and smell the madman's scent or see that Bruce was trying to hide the mussed sheets.

Finally Alfred told Bruce " I know that he's been here. It's your house. You don't have to hide. "

Bruce looked surprised that Alfred brought it out.

"All right," he agreed quietly. Bruce waited for Alfred to say more but he didn't.

 

 

Even after this, Alfred didn't see the Joker for the first couple of weeks. They moved out of the Penthouse and into the rebuilt manor. Bruce seemed to like the new Wayne manor, but Alfred thought it was too impersonal. One day, Alfred walked in the library and found the Joker thumbing one of the newly purchased books.

"What are you doing here?" Alfred asked him flatly.

" I would think that's obvious, Jeeves," the Joker's nasal voice stung Alfred's ears.

This close, Alfred could see a love bite on the clown's neck, above the hexagonal print fabric. The Joker saw where he was looking and fingered the purple mark. You're wondering why he's with me,"

he told Alfred, smirking.

"Maybe," said Alfred. "Maybe not."

"Maybe you're wondering if I fuck Brucey or does he just fuck me," the Joker said crudely.

"Maybe you're wondering why I don't kill Brucey as he sleeps, or he me. And, you're definitely wondering if my dear darling bat makes me bathe and brush my teeth before we engage in-ah, carnal activities And the answer to that one is that he does."  
"Joker!" Bruce had appeared in the doorway. The Joker walked over to him and Bruce gave Alfred a long look before they both disappeared upstairs.

 

Alfred decided to resume taking Bruce's breakfast to him. He was partly afraid that the Joker would kill Bruce while he slept. Some mornings he found the Joker asleep while Bruce worked away at his laptop in bed. Some mornings they were both sleeping soundly, wrapped around each other. Some mornings Bruce slept while the Joker lay awake next to him. He would watch Alfred as he came in and set the tray down.And some mornings the door was locked; the unmistakable sounds of two people having sex behind it.

 

On the anniversary of the deaths of Thomas and Martha Wayne, Bruce disappeared. Alfred didn't think anything of it because Bruce often absented himself on this day. Alfred felt rather than saw the Joker upstairs, pacing and waiting for Bruce. Then he was gone. When Bruce didn't return by midnight, Alfred got in the Bentley and drove to the Gotham Opera House- which had long since been closed. When Alfred parked, he noticed that a door was ajar. Alfred knew that Bruce had bought the place years ago, before he even left Gotham for the first time.

Inside, there were two shadows in the circle of Bruce's flashlight. One was Bruce, his back bowed in sadness and grief. The other was the Joker. Bruce was clutching his waist and holding on like a drowning man to a life raft. The Joker was stroking Bruce's hair.

Alfred turned away, unseen by them both.

Maybe he wasn't completely bad for Bruce.  
﻿


	2. The Crayon Drawings

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The drawings are from The Joker's Coloring Book by Harpsi_Fizz

Alfred still couldn't understand why Bruce was with the Joker. He could not fathom it and he was constantly looking for clues as to why.. One day he found a group of drawings that Bruce has put carefully away in a folder-in the nightstand next to his bed.

The first shows the Joker with his arms outstretched. Batman is in the picture and has his arm outstretched as well, as if the two figures are about to hug. The crayon figures are crudely drawn, and yet somehow touching. The caption reads, 'Dear Diary, I think Batman likes me'. The next one showed

the Joker giving Batman a kiss. The caption says that this is to make Batman 'not so serious'. Again, the Batman figure wasn't pushing the Joker figure away. The third one showed the two of them running away from Gotham. Alfred was about to look at the rest when he heard Bruce's voice.

"He used them to wallpaper his cell," Alfred had not noticed Bruce come into the room. Bruce took the drawings away from Alfred and carefully put them away.

" I would prefer that you didn't go through my personal things, Alfred," Bruce commented as he shut his nightstand and turned to face Alfred. " I know that you don't approve, but ..." Bruce trailed off and shrugged. " It's happening. He's here whether you approve or not."

"Is that why, sir?" he asked Bruce.

"What?"

Why are you with him, Bruce?

"I was wondering why him?" said Alfred.

"Oh, " said Bruce. "I need someone who appreciates me just as I am. Other than you, of course."

"Rachel appreciated you, sir," Alfred tried for an old hook.

"No, she didn't," Bruce wasn't falling for it. " She stopped long before I left Gotham, " Bruce stated bluntly.

Alfred wanted to continue this conversation, but the Joker arrived. Alfred left quickly, trying not to notice how Bruce's face had lit up at the arrival of the madman.

 

﻿


	3. Working

Alfred cornered Bruce one afternoon, intending to finish their conversation.

" So, you believe that Miss Dawes never loved you?"

" I didn't say that, Alfred," Bruce looked up from whatever he was doing. " I said he accepts me for who I am and that Rachel did not."  
"so, you have conveniently forgotten that he killed her?"

"No, I haven't forgotten. I told her to stay here, but she was too angry with me. She would have been safe if she had stayed here but she left."  
"Angry with you for not coming forward ?"

Bruce looked at Alfred closely.

"Are you sure you want to hear this?"

Alfred nodded. Bruce was silent for a long time.

"Rachel....discovered him here. That night she spent here, the night before she died, she discovered us together. "

Alfred was beyond shocked. "How, Why?" was all he could manage.

"She came into my bedroom uninvited. We were..." Bruce blushed and stopped.

" Miss Dawes caught you shagging the Joker?"

"yes," said Bruce. "I don't even know if she knew that I saw her, but I did. She left me a pretty evil note the next morning. Well, she left it and then she snuck back in and took it back. He was gone and she didn't think I was awake, but I read it. "

"What did she write?"

"How much she hated me. How lost she thought I was.."

"And that didn't give you pause?"

"No, " said Bruce. " We were already too deep. I remember you asking me if he was someone that I didn't completely understand and this applied to what we were doing, too. But we couldn't help it. It wasn't only him, it was me. I couldn't help myself even if I wanted to and I don't want to. "

Alfred had nothing to say to that. He had never dreamed that they had been involved that long and how could Bruce continue to sleep with the Joker. He knew that after three years, it wasn't just sex.

 

The next few weeks were the hardest of Bruce's life. He couldn't believe that Alfred was being this cold. He considered firing the aging butler but knew that he wouldn't go. Finally, the Joker cornered the elderly Englishman in the library one day.

"Enough of this, Jeeves," he told him. " You will stop this. It's putting Bruce in an angsty mood and I don't like that."

"And you care so much for him!" Alfred sneered in his best British manner.

"Do you?" The Joker countered. " Why must you constantly come in at seven every morning. You know he's up late, you know that he's exhausted. But here you come with your little tray-to interrupt his rest. "

Alfred was shocked. He had never thought of it that way. He knew that Bruce was exhausted and worried about him, but never had considered that he was part of the problem.

He wasn't sure that he liked the idea of the Joker trying to tell him about Bruce. He turned away and left the room. He continued to watch them over the next few weeks.

 

Alfred saw the Joker giving Bruce a massage. Bruce was always pulling muscles when he went out as Batman and Alfred would be astounded to see the Joker perched on Bruce's back, rubbing out the kinks.

 

Alfred walked into Bruce's bathroom to the strangest sight yet. Bruce had a towel around the Joker's neck and the clown was lathered up. Bruce was shaving him-carefully because of the scars.

 

Sometimes at night they would curl up and watch movies in the upstairs den. When Alfred peeked in one night, he saw the Joker lying with his head in Bruce's lap and Bruce was absently playing with his hair. When the Joker was around Bruce, he tended to not have his makeup on and while his hair was faintly green, you could see the honey blond color.

 

In the morning, Alfred could see the Joker and Bruce fighting over sections in the paper. Despite being angry about it, Alfred heeded the Joker's words. Wake time was shifted to eight thirty with breakfast served in the upstairs den. Bruce still made it to the office by 9:30, and now he got a lot more work done because he was rested.

 

Alfred didn't think it would last. He rationalized to himself that Bruce would need someone to pick up the pieces when it did fall apart.

 

But it continued to work.


End file.
